Cache Game Central

[+dancalvert]

I am beginning to have a few ideas for UK cache games, and would like to designate this topic as the home for discussion on games.

 

To start the ball rolling;

 

Does anyone remember 'Masquerade'. It was a national treasure hunt, supported by a book, that ultimately led to a 'Jewelled Rabbit' (buried near Ampthill, Beds, I think). The thing was that the clues were very cryptic and obscure.

 

I am sort of proposing a similar thing for UK cachers. Obviously we would need a 'core' team of untouchables to devise clues etc and we would probably want to impose a strict time frame for the hunt (1 month, for example)

 

Basically this would be an extension of the multi-cache idea, but would use wider sources of information to pull together the lat/longs.

 

Now, a contentious issue! I am aware of the importance to keep geocaching as 'non-commercial' as possible, and, a quick look at the US forums showed me that Jeremy Irish is only too quick to jump on any suggestions of 'for profit'. Now, I am in no way suggesting an entrance fee or anything. What I am suggesting is that we endeavour to acquire a medium/high value 'prize' to reward the effort. This MAY happen through donation/unofficial event sponsorship.

 

So there you go, how does that sit with you all?

 

Comments welcome

 

Dan

[+dylanhayes]

If the intention is not to make money, but to cover the costs of the prize. As an example nobody seemed to complain about paying a tenner to play in the cache hunt Chuffer and myself organised back in may. We did it to offset the cost of matterials and certainly didn't make money from the venture. In retrospect we might have charged a bit more and been able to provide better prizes and more trinkets and even covered some of the petrol costs, but I don't think the event would have been much better because of that.

 

Thus if an organised game was planned, I think it would not be unreasonable to ask for a contribution for the prize. The prize money raised would be unlikly to be spectularly large, but the real prize in a taking part. Also keeping the prize small removes the temptation for players to cheat and keep it friendly and social.

 

Involving commercial sponsorship, even if you didn't get shouted down due to the commercial aspect, might lead to a better prize, but is unlikely to improve the quality of the game for most players for the reasons above.

 

My own opinion is that when so many other leisure activities have become dominated by logos and sponsorship I think its nice to enjoy the homespun and uncorporate nature of geocaching. Long may it carry on that way!

 

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Don't mention the mushrooms

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[+dancalvert]

My embryonic idea would be to not charge for playing. If anything, the only 'money' involved would come from some kind of interested party, (a local outdoor pursuits store or GPS/outdoor supplier etc) donating a few items to be the ultimate prize. Id like it to be something a little special because my intention would certainly be to tax the minds of the cachers. (one forced aim would be for people to think more about where the caches are, rather than haring to the site solely to get the 'log') The game would emphasize skill and research rather than speed. (we can all bang the co-ords in, solve the clue and find the cache, after all!)

 

I will be laying out my ideas in a fuller form at my site. www.calvertbrothers.co.uk

 

Dan

 

P.S. I see on geocaching.com that they have gone into a corporate partnership. http://www.geocaching.com/geoteaming/

[Moss Trooper]

I can remember 'Masquerade' and was it evre solved!!

 

One of your major problems is going to be location of the cache. When I set up the Computer Active cache it was placed in Haltwhistle, the geographic centre of the UK.. This was so that when folks say "it's to far north, to far south" I could argue it was central, well as central as you can get anyway.

 

Next problem is how do you set it up? A multi cache, if so then are the seperate locations spread throughout the UK.

 

If worked on just a single cache then when you gona publish the book

 

As for a super duper prize! If you want to get a sponsor involved then that falls on the commercial side and would proberbly be frowned upon.

 

You could try working a multi cache with teams, and say have clues for every number in the location meaning there would have to be 13 or 14 cache/clues.

 

Each clue based in a different area and each team consisting of one member from each area. One person with a warped sence of humour to set out the cache/clue from the area (they can not take part in the hunt) but could set each cache/clue to be a criptic multicache/or very criptic single cache.

 

Winning team cops the lot, assuming the answer is right because as a sting, don't tell em the order the numbers come in.. Now what's the permutations of 15

 

Me thoughts.

 

Moss

 

Moss de Boss... Sorta

[Moss Trooper]

I can remember 'Masquerade' and was it evre solved!!

 

One of your major problems is going to be location of the cache. When I set up the Computer Active cache it was placed in Haltwhistle, the geographic centre of the UK.. This was so that when folks say "it's to far north, to far south" I could argue it was central, well as central as you can get anyway.

 

Next problem is how do you set it up? A multi cache, if so then are the seperate locations spread throughout the UK.

 

If worked on just a single cache then when you gona publish the book

 

As for a super duper prize! If you want to get a sponsor involved then that falls on the commercial side and would proberbly be frowned upon.

 

You could try working a multi cache with teams, and say have clues for every number in the location meaning there would have to be 13 or 14 cache/clues.

 

Each clue based in a different area and each team consisting of one member from each area. One person with a warped sence of humour to set out the cache/clue from the area (they can not take part in the hunt) but could set each cache/clue to be a criptic multicache/or very criptic single cache.

 

Winning team cops the lot, assuming the answer is right because as a sting, don't tell em the order the numbers come in.. Now what's the permutations of 15

 

Me thoughts.

 

Moss

 

Moss de Boss... Sorta

[+dancalvert]

Well, my thinking is this. I (and a team of cunning 'untouchables'), will create a series of web pages dealing with admin etc. Then on an appointed date, and running for a fixed length of time (eg, 1 month, maybe longer), the game will run.

 

A cryptic clue will be published to the website. Drawing on readily available reference material (ie, the web), players will solve the clue, and will be led to a location. At that location will be a cache. The cache (possibly a regular cache) will contain standard contents, as well as a unique reference. On logging that reference at my site, a new clue will be given etc etc etc.

 

I'd like the game to be national, and this could encourage the formation of teams (also forging links between cachers nationwide)

 

The final cache will contain ONE 'golden ticket'. This will be the key to the prize. The holder of the golden ticket will, on proof of having sucessfully found ALL the clues, be awarded the prize (and the envy of all other players!).

 

The cryptic clues will require historical, literary and map-based research, amongst others, but will require no specialist knowledge on the part of the player (apart from their latent intelligence). The emphasis being to test cachers minds, rather than their sole ability to use their GPS'.

 

My hope is that the physical prize will be special, possibly donated by a GPS equipment supplier or an outdoor pursuits store etc. Alternatively, I could charge a fee, (which I am loathe to do). I personally see the donation of a prize (Perhaps a £50 token?) as being no more 'dodgy' than Garmin, Magellan etc being mentioned hither and yon, not to mention all the other mapping software companies that get 'plugged' in these fora.

 

That's basically it for the time being.

 

Comment as you will.

 

Dan (www.calvertbrothers.co.uk)

[+dancalvert]

All updates to the 'Masquerade' game idea will now be posted at: www.calvertbrothers.co.uk/geocaching.html

[+jeremyp]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Moss Trooper:

I can remember 'Masquerade' and was it ever solved!!

---

I believe it was eventually solved (I may be wrong). However, there was some contoversy along the way. In particular, one of the illustrations was of an identifiable country house (palace really). The owners woke up one morning to find that treasure hunters had dug lots of holes in their crocquet lawn mistakenly thinking the rabbit was buried under it.

 

Wasn't there also some sort of easter egg hunt based on the same idea?

 

-------

jeremyp

The second ten million caches were the worst too.

http://www.jeremyp.net/geocaching

[Rangers of Ithilien]

The jewel encrusted solid gold hare (hidden by Kit Williams) was found. I believe it was in a wall which surrounded a churchyard, not bricked into it, simply pushed in-between the stones which formed the wall. if I remember correctly, the exact location could only be found by being there on a particular date and at a particular time in order to see where the sunshine was concentrated after passing through something like a celtic style cross or similar. It was also the first of its kind, several other books have followed, some solved, some still remaining a mystery!

 

www.treasureclub.net has lots of similar things ongoing at the moment along with news about winners of various events that they also organise.

 

Also, for those who wish to know more about Kit Williams, here is a helpful site! http://www.bunnyears.net/kitwilliams/links.html

 

Tiffany

[L8 Ed]

Masquerade was not solved. Unfortunately the Prize was found by a man walking his dog and the dog sniffed it out.

I for one was working on the puzzle and I was disappointed that it had been found in this manner but there you go That’s life. Sell the GPS and get a dog.

L8 ED

[+dancalvert]

My sources inform me that Masquerade WAS solved, but in a somewhat controversial manner.

 

The guy who found the jewelled Hare was called Ken Thomas (although further research reveals his real name to be Dugold Thompson)

 

He had been interested in the puzzle, but that instead of solving it in the intended manner, researched heavily into Kit Williams' life, and through getting some underhand clues from a former girlfriend of Kit Williams.

 

Befre Thompson found the hare, the puzzle was proving to be too taxing, and Kit Williams took the extra step of publishing a further clue in the Sunday Times. This led ultimately to two guys, Mike Barker and John Rousseau to solve the puzzle 'properly'. Unfortunately, Thompson already had the hare.

 

The hare was buried under the Cross of Catherine of Aragon in a park near Ampthill in Bedfordshire.

 

Dan

[dougandsonia]

Wasn't there also some sort of easter egg hunt based on the same idea?

 

Yes Cadbury's. Don't know if anyone found the prize(s) I still have the book somewhere - a number of eggs all "laid" in parts of the country, with a book of poems / pictures providing clues.

 

The nearer your destination, the more you keep slip sliding away.

[dougandsonia]

Like the idea of a well-spread out game. Those of us in the frozen North are far from the hub of the game normally. I would be glad to be involved in the positioning / placing of cache in this area and generally being involved at this end if that's any help.

 

The nearer your destination, the more you keep slip sliding away.

[+McDeHack]

There is already a cache that is operating on a simalar theme at the present time. One has to find the clues to the cache, collect a card, and when all cards are collected they give the final co-ord to the BIG cache. NO advert. But it is named after a London board game